How social media is already influencing the news

According to Nielsen, 57% of Internet consumers use TV and Internet simultaneously at home at least once a month. I think this was very clear in the UK during the pre-election debates when Twitter and Facebook were the busiest I’ve ever seen them. It was quite clear from the activity of the likes of Charlie Whelan and Alistair Campbell that they saw the Internet as just as significant a battle ground for voters as television.

The same is very true of prime time TV shows. For instance, BBC drama Ashes to Ashes, which airs its final episode on Friday, trends quite consistently on Twitter each week.

One thing that unites each of these events is that they have clear ringleaders to keep the conversation alive, even where it would be user generated anyway. The BBC uses Twitter profiles based on the key characters from Ashes to Ashes while key spin doctors from the major parties direct the debate during the election.

I can already hear you saying that this won’t work for my widget manufacturer though. But it worked for Professional Engineering last week, which ran its first Twinterview with Dr Lucy Rogers (@drlucyrogers), the author of plain English guide, ‘It’s only Rocket Science’. You can read the results here.

So, it’s clearly not just the consumer media that is turned on to the power of social media to compliment its print offering. It’s also the very best of the trade media. So what’s to stop you doing it yourself with your own business? The question becomes how do we use social media to help our own technical PR campaigns like it helps some prime time TV shows?

Richard Stone

Stone Junction is a cool technical PR agency based in Stafford. We work for all sorts of businesses, with a particular focus on technology, technical and engineering companies. We like being sent cake and biscuits by clients, journalists and prospects.

Contact Stone Junction

If you are a journalist with a question about a Stone Junction client, e-mail sayhello@stonejunction.co.uk. If you are a prospective client, trying to contact Stone Junction about our services, use any of the methods below to reach Richard Stone, the managing director.